The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson Silly me for thinking that this book would be a lighthearted and feel-good romance in the same vein as Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand. Simonson draws the time and place so well that one cannot imagine living in that time and place with anything other than a sense …
Tag: tragedy
Dec 26
Book Review – Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman I almost quit this book in the first fifty pages because I found the main character so fussy and deeply unlikeable. She’s aggressively bright but socially awkward, reading like an autistic person. It seemed that she didn’t have any friends and didn’t want any friends and felt …
Dec 26
Book Review – The Republic of Thieves
The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch The events of this novel are highly influenced by Red Seas Under Red Skies so don’t do what I did and let most of a decade pass between reading the previous one and this one. Scott Lynch doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to worldbuilding and complicated …
Oct 03
Book Review: Looking for Alaska
Looking for Alaska by John Green John Green is supposed to be THE guy for heart-rending teen romances, or so I’ve heard. This falls into that category. The Alaska of the title is not the state but a beautiful and troubled young woman, sort of a manic pixie fairy girl off her meds. Our protagonist …
Sep 07
Book Review: The Orchardist
The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin The first thing I noticed about this book is that the author did not use quotations to set off dialog. It made it feel to me as if the novel was silent, underwater, like watching a movie with the sound off. There is dialog, but it’s not in quotes, so …
- 1
- 2